Agreed vs Market Value Car Insurance Calculator

This calculator compares agreed value and market value car insurance in New Zealand, showing the difference in what you would be paid if your car were written off, so you can choose the cover that suits you. The two are fundamentally different promises. Agreed value fixes a payout figure when you take out the policy, and that is what you receive on a total loss no matter how much the car has depreciated since, giving certainty and usually a higher cheque. Market value pays whatever the insurer assesses the car to be worth at the moment of the claim, which is lower and keeps falling as the car ages, but the premium is often cheaper. You enter the agreed value offered and your estimate of the car's market value at the time of a claim, and the calculator shows the payout under each basis and the difference between them. For newer cars, or where you owe money on the vehicle, the certainty of agreed value can be worth the small extra premium, while for older cars the two figures are often close enough that market value is fine. Remember a market value payout late in the policy year reflects a year's extra depreciation, so the gap can be wider than it first appears.

Agreed value pays the set figure; market value pays the assessed current value, which falls as the car ages. Premiums differ. Estimate only.